Here at Riverside Pet Care, we strive to provide the Gold Standard in canine reproductive care. Dr. Kolbaba and our reproductive staff are passionate about helping you with all of your breeding needs. Together, we have well over 30 years of combined experience with breeding, whelping, and puppy care. Currently, Dr. Kolbaba is our only doctor providing reproductive services at our facility. This is in addition to his general practice appointments. We understand that breeding your dog is a time sensitive matter and do our best to fit your needs into our schedule. There are some things that you can do to help us provide you and your pets with the best care possible.
Ovulation Timing Exams
An Ovulation Timing Exam (OVT) is required for each bitch for every breeding cycle. If you are planning on breeding your bitch please call us on the first day you see her bleeding. This is “Day One”. We recommend testing progesterone for the first time between days 5-7 to get a baseline number. This way we can more accurately test to catch her LH surge and be as accurate as possible when making suggestions for breeding timing.
Our progesterone machines may be different from other clinics – we like to base our timing suggestions on the LH surge when a bitches progesterone level is around 3.0ng/mls. She ovulates around 4.0-5.0ng/mls. We usually recommend natural and Vaginal AI breedings start two days post LH, and Trans Cervical Inseminations (TCI) three days post LH, as long as progesterone levels are in the mid to high teens. Some of this timing varies based on the type of semen used and the individual bitch’s cycle.
Stud Selection
Please have your stud selected at the time of your first appointment. It is smart to have a back-up plan for a stud. We are not open on the weekend for regular appointments. We will only see patients for scheduled breedings and C-sections. If it’s possible that your female will be ready to be bred on a Saturday, we ask that you bring the stud with you to your appointment. If your female ends up being ready and your stud is 30 minutes or more away, we may need to reschedule your breeding for Monday. If you’re unable to get a natural tie with your male and female and a TCI is needed, we require notice by 10am the day before in order for a Same Day Fee to be avoided.
It is difficult for us to accommodate Same Day scheduling especially if we have not seen the bitch for her current heat. Calling early in her cycle and planning ahead helps us be able to get you in on the appropriate days to be most successful. We do our very best to get all reproductive patients in when needed, but there will be a higher fee for same day appointments.
Breeding females will need to be under the breeders account and a credit card will need to be on file for charges. We will communicate with the breeder with results and retesting recommendations. We allow the two of you to take care of logistics with scheduling.
Plan Ahead!
At the time of breeding, whether it be natural, AI, or TCI please call to schedule your bitches ultrasound (Day 30-33 post breeding) and her radiographs (Day 55 post breeding). We do an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy and get an estimated count on puppies. We do radiographs to get a more accurate count on puppies, see if puppies will fit through the female’s pelvis, and to see if there have been any noticeable changes since the ultrasound. It is recommended to do both to track the pregnancy. At the time of the radiograph appointment please let us know how you plan to whelp your litter, at home or with the assistance of a C-section.
Unplanned C-sections
Sometimes whelping does not go as smoothly as we would like. We are here for you in these moments. We are very busy, however, we do our best to accommodate our pregnant patients. What can you do to help us better serve you in these emergent scenarios? It is extremely helpful for our scheduling purposes if you let us know when your bitch is in labor and actively whelping, well before you have issues. This puts her and you on our minds just in case we need to squeeze you in. We have two types of non-elective C-section scenarios, Urgent Care and Emergency, and charges will vary depending on the situation.
What constitutes an Urgent Care C-section vs an Emergency C-section?
If we have been seeing your bitch throughout her breeding/pregnancy, ultrasound, x-ray etc., and you have opted to let her attempt to whelp at home and you run into issues like dystocia that prompt you to bring her in, this would be considered an Urgent Care C-section. In these cases, your bitch is on our radar as we have been tracking her pregnancy progress and we know that she is due.
An Emergency C-section would be if we have not seen your bitch this pregnancy and she experiences whelping distress that requires intervention. While we try our best, these situations can be difficult for us to fit into our schedule, and you may need to go to an Emergency Clinic.
Please schedule your dew claw removal and tail docking, the day your puppies are born. You can also schedule your first exam and vaccines, for 6-8 weeks of age, at that time.
We wish the best for you and your breeding program and we look forward to serving you for your dog’s reproductive care needs. Please email or text us with any questions you may have.
